My invention relates to a noise blanking circuit and method, and particularly to such a circuit and method that provides a signal that blanks received signals for a wide amplitude range of noise, and that permits strong information signals to remain unblanked.
Noise blankers are used in communications systems, particularly radio communications systems, to eliminate bursts of noise, such as caused by natural or man-made bursts of electromagnetic energy. Even though they may be of short time duration, such bursts of noise are annoying or distracting to a user, particularly in a radio communications system. Prior art noise blankers I am aware of have several disadvantages. One disadvantage is that they are limited in the noise level or amplitude they respond to, with the result that some lower levels of noise may not be blanked. Another disadvantage is that they may blank high levels of information signals, thus causing information to be lost.